Before, the government’s more modest mission was to make more loans available at lower rates. Now it is to make sure the loans that matter most to middle class Americans are made at all.

The new reality is scorned by libertarians and conservatives, who fear intrusions by the state in the market, and by populists and progressives, who rue a society in which education and housing increasingly rest upon the government’s willingness to finance it.

“If you’re a socialist, you should be happy,” said Michael Lind, a fellow at the New America Foundation, a research institute in Washington. “But you should really wonder whether you want people’s ability to pay for housing and college dependent on the motives of people in Washington.”

Emphasis mine. Read the whole thing.

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I believe decades from now, this may be what tarnishes President Bush’s legacy. In retrospect, as long as we don’t allow the “Hate Bush Crowd” to write all of the history books, the Iraq War will likely be looked at as a liberation of a people, the ousting of an evil dictator, and the spread of democracy to create a freer middle east. But just as FDR’s legacy is tied to social programs as much as it is tied to the second World War, this administration’s handling of the mortgage crisis and the greater government backing of mortgage debts will be identified with them as much as the War on Terror.

I can not emphasize any of this enough. This is not good and certainly not temporary. Social Security was supposed to be temporary, as were many of the taxes and other bureaucracies we endure. But once granted power or wealth, no government has ever given it up freely…. and thus starts a more rapid decline into oblivion.

We spent decades teaching people that free markets allow free people… that the best ideas come from capitalism and the innovation it allowed. That democracy and self reliance worked hand in hand and that socialism and communism were iron nooses around a society’s neck. Just as socialist and communist nations have fallen under their own weight, so too can we if we repeat their failings.

The conservatives and libertarians across this great land are not naive fools as they cry foul. They are students of history who understand the nature of our nation’s very foundation. Sadly those who are supposed to serve along with the whining masses do not. A government that gives you everything can take everything away. A people who cannot be self reliant cannot be free. These are scary times indeed… but hey… at least the socialists should be happy.